KARACHI: Dr Mahrang Baloch, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee leader, has been included in Time magazine’s “2024 Time100 Next” list for her advocacy of Baloch rights, the magazine announced on Wednesday.

According to a Dawn.com report, the list showcases 100 young individuals “who are not waiting long in life to make an impact” and includes artists, athletes, and advocates. The magazine says the list aims “to recognise that influence does not have [requirements] … nor does leadership look like it once did”.

The magazine selected Dr Mahrang for her peaceful advocacy as well as her December 2023 march to Islamabad, where she and hundreds of women marched for “justice for their husbands, sons, and brothers”.

“I am deeply honoured and delighted to be named among the top 100 emerging leaders of the world by Time,” she wrote in a Facebook post after receiving the recognition. She dedicated the recognition to all Baloch women human rights defenders.

Mahrang Baloch rose to prominence when she began leading protests after her father, Ghaffar Longove, went missing in December 2009 outside a hospital in Karachi.

At the time, she was still a student in primary school. The eldest of six siblings, Mahrang burned her school books in front of the Quetta Press Club as a form of protest, demanding her father’s return. His mutilated body was discovered in 2011.

Other notable figures on the Time100 Next list included Bangladesh student leader Nahid Islam and Gazan food blogger Hamada Shaqoura.

Nahid Islam led student protests in Bangladesh over the summer, which resulted in the ousting and exile of former premier Sheikh Hasina.

Hamada Shaqoura, who owned a restaurant in Gaza before the conflict erupted in October, has become a “wartime food blogger”. He creates recipes using ingredients from aid packages and shares videos of himself cooking and distributing meals in the besieged enclave.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024